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Summary List of stories Phase II Night: Ashes, Metal, And Corruption << chapter 54 Chapter 55 of 75 Whispers Of Untold Stories chapter 56 >> << previous scene Scene 3 of 3 next scene >> Location Participants Time Summary Prologue | Phase I | Phase II | Epilogue 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 Text Celestia was snarling in pain, hugging herself around the body and breathing hard as the bone pistons extending from her back sparked violently, her amber eyes glowing and golden-fire mane writhing as she whispered: "It hurts..." Gymbr sighed quietly, hurrying across the Garden towards the fallen ivory equine, its front hooves snapping apart into claws before it quickly grasped into the underside of Celestia's jaw and yanked her head up, their gazes locking as the androgynous creature's eyes glowed bright green. Celestia gasped as the pain worsened, flexing hard, shivering as her body rippled... but then it rapidly faded away, numbness and faint pleasure pulsing through her system instead as she slowly settled and the glow faded from Gymbr's eyes. Carefully, Celestia pushed herself up to her hooves, then she shook her head weakly and dropped it forwards, trembling a bit as she whispered: "I am so sorry." "No, no. Do not apologize." Gymbr replied sharply, shaking its head before it closed its eyes. "We are sorry. Celestia, we are sorry... we pushed you into the transformation. We can admit to our faults and mistakes..." Celestia only smiled faintly, and then she turned her eyes away silently. More than a hundred years had passed since she had undergone her transformation into a full-fledged Tyrant Wyrm... but over the last decade, Celestia's body had begun to simply... give out. Gymbr wasn't sure what it had done wrong: the transformation should have been perfect. Twilight Shadow, even now, was working frantically to try and find the solution, along with the Princesses, and they were searching every resource they had at their disposal. The black-fire maned winged unicorn sighed as it began to pace anxiously, cursing under its breath to itself as Celestia only stood, then bowed her head and said quietly: "I... I cannot serve you as First Concubine if I require you to soothe my pain every few hours, but... perhaps I can still be of some use to you, my beloved Overlord." Gymbr frowned at this, looking up, and then it swallowed and shook its head when Celestia smiled across at the creature even as bloody tears fell from her eyes. "Kill me. Consume me, before my body and spirit break down any further. Make all my power yours." "Celestia, no." Gymbr shook its head quickly, cursing and looking away despite the shudder of desire, of temptation, that ran through it. "We love you, we admire and respect you... we will not..." "If you love me, then you'll do this for me. My one wish, my last wish." Celestia bowed her head forwards, closing her eyes. "I love you." Gymbr stared silently, breathing hard, and when Celestia rose her head and smiled, it could only tremble, then nod slowly as it whispered: "You will always be in our heart, big sister." Five minutes later, Gymbr was striding silently out of the Garden and through the halls of its enormous, powerful castle. It was breathing hard, but no tears came: Gymbr didn't seem to be capable of crying. Yet on the inside, both sides of it were wailing, howling with misery... both Scrivener and Luna were in despair and rage inside of the creature, and Gymbr was filled with horror at what it had done... and yet it hadn't stopped. It had given its lethal kiss to Celestia, and it had drank down her life force and soul like fine wine... Twilight Shadow was already waiting for Gymbr in the throne room when it arrived, and the Lich was crying silently, staring weakly across at Gymbr. Gymbr only gazed weakly back, and then it lowered its head and whispered: "We will use the Bifrost tomorrow to cross to an unexplored layer of reality. One day, though, Twilight Shadow... we will become so powerful that we will be able to bring back all those lost to us..." "I'll be there with you, every step. Always." Twilight Shadow whispered, looking up with a tremble... and the fanaticism, the love, the zealotry in her eyes was almost enough to make Gymbr shiver. A message was sent out from Enstasis across their dark kingdom of Equestria, which mourned for the death of Celestia. And Enstasis was a mix of both revelry and misery as Tender Trust was appointed the new First Concubine, as Celestia was mourned and fondly remembered, and they prepared to deal with their sorrows the way Gymbr dealt with pain best: by renewing its quest to seek out power, by exploring to new worlds, by taking its pain out on others. True to its word, the Bifrost was forced open, and Gymbr, Twilight Shadow, and the Princesses invaded another realm. A week later, they returned with a terrified, different Celestia as a prisoner of war, along with several other scared and badly-injured ponies. These were experimented on to different points... and Gymbr smiled as, after a month of this, it sat in its throne with a broken Celestia draped in gemstones and jewelry beside her, and a control collar around her neck. Not their Celestia, by any means, and not a replacement... merely a buffer, a toy, to soften the loss. But it didn't last: Sleipnir came down from Valhalla to lecture his strange, evil sibling and again try to make Gymbr see reason. They argued for hours, shouting at one another furiously, as Sleipnir tried to make Gymbr understand what it was doing was wrong. And finally, a fight had broken out: and while Sleipnir wasn't as strong as he had once been, had grown rusty, he still had his natural warrior's instincts... backed by the rage and despair and disbelief at everything that had happened, lending him further strength. And in fury and misery, Gymbr struck back as fiercely as it could, until Sleipnir lay bleeding in the Garden. Bleeding, broken... dying, Gymbr realized too late. But Sleipnir had only grinned weakly, closing his eyes as Gymbr rushed too late to its brother's side, and Sleipnir rasped quietly: "Look at what thou hast become... oh, little sister, if thou can still hear me... show some scrap of conscience... do one thing right with thy life. Stop this..." He coughed weakly, clutching at his separated ribs, the bones torn through his inner organs from a too-hard blow from Gymbr as the creature stood over its sibling with horror. "And... and Scrivener Blooms... thou art better than this, too. Both thee and my little sister are so much better than this... please show that. Please show the world... p-please..." And Sleipnir had died, there, in the Garden, of an argument that had gotten out of control. Gymbr had howled in misery, not just made a single child by the death of its brother and sister... made an orphan, too, with the loss of the older siblings who had raised Luna and taken care of her until she had become Gymbr... Again, there was mourning and misery, but this time Gymbr spent it instead locked away in its room. It contemplated what it could do, if there was any possible way at all it could right all of these wrongs... if it could right even a single wrong it had done. The only true comfort was Twilight Shadow: she was blindly dedicated, but still herself, even after all these years. She still scolded Gymbr, and spoke up against it when it did something stupid, and put forwards her on thoughts and ideas. And as Gymbr stared around Enstasis weakly, it realized how much it had damaged. How much it had done. The Moon Blessed were nothing more than puppets, and the concubines and concubinus were the same. After Sleipnir's death, the little life and fight that had been left in Pinkamena had vanished, and now the demon simply sat in the kitchens and ate as Pinkie Pie made her endless batches of cupcakes and donuts and muffins and cookies. The Princesses, too... Apple Bloom sometimes showed fear, but Scarlet Sage was so... abused, it realized, that she had gone from beloved daughter to little more than... than toy. Gymbr desired... to restart. And understood that perhaps there was even a way it could... but again, greed took over. Greed, avarice, and lust for pleasure and power... and even though Twilight Shadow spoke up worriedly against the sudden, insane plan, she vowed quietly that if it was what Gymbr desired... she would aid. And a week later, Gymbr called its toys to its room, one-by-one, and consumed them one after the other. Few resisted: some, like Pinkamena, had even seemed happy to finally be given a chance to pass on, and the demon herself had grinned widely, whispering weakly: "It's about time. Me and sissy... had enough of this mess anyway." Others had given in happily, revealing even worse states of broken being than defeat and despair: Apple Bloom had almost tried to struggle, but had been soothed by Scarlet Sage, who had gazed at Gymbr with adoration as she whispered: "Part of you two forever, with Apple Bloom forever... will I see Celestia? Will I see Mom and Dad?" Gymbr had only smiled weakly, unable to lie and unable to tell the truth, as Twilight Shadow had turned her eyes away... but both had known that it didn't matter anyway. Yes or no, Scarlet Sage would have done anything Gymbr asked... and Apple Bloom would have done anything to follow Scarlet Sage. Once that was done, Gymbr had rested, flooded with power, possessing new strengths and new abilities, filled with new memories. And then it had turned its eyes to the Lich as Twilight Shadow had stepped forwards, but Gymbr had only closed its eyes, shaking its head silently and murmuring: "No. We desire... a companion. You are our companion. You are the one we choose to be with." "Then I'm beside you, until the very end." Twilight Shadow replied firmly, nodding once, and Gymbr had smiled at this with a slow nod of agreement and approval. They had rested until morning, when Enstasis became quietest... and then, working alongside Twilight Shadow, Gymbr had used its unfathomable, terrible powers to bring the mighty, thought-indestructible castle crashing down to the ground, drawing energy out of the ever-swirling maelstrom above to raze what had once been its decadent palace of dreams and nightmares. And with that, Gymbr and Twilight Shadow had simply left, abandoning their Equestria... but the world they crossed to on random across the Bifrost had long been destroyed. The two wandered for weeks across a desert of destruction and debris, searching for any signs of life... but they found nothing. And there was, in turn, nothing here for Gymbr to sate its hungers: hungers that had grown, that it had forgotten to take into account. Hungers that had worsened with all the powerful spirits and souls it had consumed in its childish attempt to 'set things right,' that it only now realized was just greed and stupidity, as it longed to see friends and family again... friends and family it hadn't freed, but had simply... destroyed. They stopped for camp one night... and Gymbr gazed to Twilight Shadow, who smiled back at him before nodding and slipping back beneath the starlight. Their bodies moved together, dark creatures seeking the comfort of each other in the depths of the night, the one pleasure they could share in this empty world they had fled into. And when Gymbr kissed her, it tasted all the magic, all the energy, that made up Twilight Shadow's spirit. All the power in that soul, all the emotion, and the hungers leapt up... When Gymbr pulled its mouth away, it was too late. The Lich lay beneath him, a look of faint hurt and betrayal on her face, but love gleaming in her dead eyes as a last bit of energy steamed up from her jaws. Gymbr had feasted upon her spirit... and since Gymbr was what the Lich connected to, what had kept Twilight Shadow in eternal undeath, pulling in the rest of her life force and soul had been a task completed in only a matter of moments. So now, Gymbr sat alone, in a desert. It could open the Bifrost... but it had nowhere to go. No other world would ever accept its presence, and the world that Fate had dumped it in was nothing but empty sand, blown by a wind that reeked of decay. And it was what it deserved, as it sat alone, a god with all the powers of the universe inside its mixed consciousness, but who could do nothing for all its abilities except run away and destroy everything it cared for. So finally, Gymbr silently laid down by the corpse of Twilight, hugged it back against its chest, and closed its eyes. And by morning, the decaying wind had blown a blanket of sand over both their bodies, burying corpse and self-annihilated god in the endless desert to sleep forever... and inside its mixed consciousness, Scrivener and Luna both wished in silent darkness they had never allowed Gymbr to be born. Category:Transcript Category:Story